Thursday, May 14, 2009

ZEG

In his latest offering, conservative Australian cartoonist ZEG is disgusted by the gang rapes carried out by National Rugby League footballers.

Youths throw rocks, terrorise elderly home: No penalty

A NORTHERN Territory nursing home went into lockdown after a gang of youths jumped the back fence and terrorised elderly residents. The Northern Territory News reports that young thugs hurled rocks at the elderly residents' private villas and lurked around the premises, peering through windows.

Frightened nursing staff hit the panic button, which locks all the residents' doors, in fear of what the wayward teenagers were up to. "We were worried as the residents were vulnerable," a nurse said. "I don't know what (the youths) intended to do but we didn't want to risk it, so we went into physical lockdown."

The ambush happened at the 56-bed Terrace Gardens nursing home in Farrar, Palmerston, about 9pm on Tuesday. Police were called and quickly swarmed the area, rounding up almost a dozen kids hidden in bushland nearby. They were taken to the Palmerston police station where they were later released without charge.

Commander Rob Kendrick said the problem lay with "parents who just don't care". "Some of these youths are not from normal homes and police are left to deal with the consequences of their upbringing and actions," he said.

A TOTAL of 25 police officers have faced courts in NSW in the past six months for offences ranging from assault and theft to drink driving and drug supply. An investigation by The Daily Telegraph has found the officers' alleged crimes also include drag racing, conducting illegal searches and gaining unauthorised access to the NSW Police computer system.

Among the police officers charged is Senior-Constable Antoni Jozef Krawczyk, accused of taking $100 from a lost and found purse handed to police. The 33-year-old Quakers Hill police officer is the son of Parramatta's highly regarded Detective Inspector Jan Krawczyk. The younger Krawczyk has been suspended from duty with pay.

His case was heard in Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday along with the case of North Sydney Constable Luke Maxwell Sweetman, 28, who faces three charges of accessing restricted data in the NSW Police computer system. Sweetman remains on duty with full pay.

Krawczyk has been charged with larceny for allegedly taking two $50 notes from the purse on December 2. He is alleged to have taken the money after visiting a home in Glenwood, where the purse containing documents and cash was handed to him by a member of the public.

Krawczyk comes from a family with a long history in the police force. His younger brother Michael recently graduated from Goulburn Police College, his sister Fiona is with the police prosecution branch and his father Insp Krawczyk was awarded the NSW Police Medal after 40-years of service.

Solicitor Kenneth Madden, who is representing both Krawczyk and Sweetman, told the Downing Centre Local Court that he had 18 witnesses to give evidence on behalf of Krawczyk and wanted both matters to go to hearing. Neither has entered a plea.

Nine off-duty police have been charged with drink driving and four with assault.

NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said officers who committed crimes represented only a "tiny proportion" of the force. "The public expects the highest integrity of the 15,300 police officers in NSW and the tiny proportion of those who commit a crime let down the vast majority of officers who work to uphold the law," he said. "I am disappointed every time an officer is charged. "But police are not above the law and if they choose to behave illegally they will be dealt with."

More on the vast and fatal government incompetence during the Victorian bushfires

Despite such fires being a frequent problem, they showed totally inadequate preparedness

DESPERATE Black Saturday residents calling for emergency help were put on hold by Telstra and in some cases diverted to Centrelink. As Victoria's worst-ever fire advanced towards them, callers heard a soothing voice say, "Don't disconnect, your call will be answered". The bushfires royal commission was told yesterday some people who tried to contact the Victorian bushfire information line on February 7 were diverted to Centrelink, the Herald Sun reports.

In an extraordinary breakdown, it also emerged that 24 hours after 34 people were killed in Marysville, Victoria's peak emergency body believed all there were safe. The Office of the Emergency Services Commissioner issued a situation report at 8am and 5pm on February 8, saying: "We understand everyone in Marysville is safe." The bushfires royal commission yesterday heard the situation report listed nearby Taggerty as a "concern", when the fire had ripped through the town the day before.

Counsel assisting the commission, Rachel Doyle, said the information was "just embarrassingly out of date". Emergency Services Commissioner Bruce Esplin agreed, saying the reports were "unfortunate and wrong".

On the communications breakdown, Mr Esplin said 9088 triple-zero calls and 970 SES calls were received on February 7. He said Telstra emergency calls were passed on to the state's Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority and if there was a surge, callers would hear the recorded message. "My understanding is that Telstra activated a recorded voice announcement," he said. "I have been advised that ESTA didn't activate a voice recorded announcement."

Mr Esplin said if ESTA was overloaded it went to "second, third and fourth responders", but he could not say if that happened on Black Saturday. Ms Doyle asked if emergency calls were passed to CFA volunteers at their homes during a windstorm that hit Victoria in April 2008. "Last year some CFA volunteers literally received triple-zero calls?" Ms Doyle asked. Mr Esplin: "That is correct. Passed through from Telstra."

Ms Doyle asked what happened when the bushfire information line, which was supposed to relieve the load on triple-zero, was itself overloaded. "My understanding is that there is a pre-arrangement with the Department of Social Security ... in other words Centrelink," Mr Esplin said.

Earlier, he said the Government did not approve a national phone alert system until 16 days after Black Saturday. If the system had been in place on February 7 it would have been an "important tool", but he could not say if it would have saved lives. He said the system would be in place by October.

Mr Esplin also said a radio and television emergency break-in signal was not activated on Black Saturday. He said the Standard Emergency Warning Signal (SEWS) was used routinely in cyclone-prone areas but was never discussed in bushfire planning meetings between emergency services.

Where did they get this insane bus driver? What training was he given? Are they psychologically evaluated before being given charge of lots of people? And judging by many past verdicts (e.g. this one) he will do no jail time for his appalling behaviour

A BRISBANE City Council bus driver assaulted a 79-year-old passenger because he was "a few cents short" of his fare, a court has been told. Dennis Fath Chow, 38, was yesterday committed to stand trial for the serious assault of the man, who cannot be identified, at Chermside West in September 2008.

A Brisbane Magistrate's Court committal hearing was told the men had argued over the price of a bus fare. High school student, Jaqueline Williams, 16, told the court she was travelling on a No.345 bus when it stopped at the corner of Rode Rd and Maundrell Tce at Chermside West. She said Chow became involved in an argument with his elderly passenger when he could not produce the correct fare.

After rebuffing the girl's attempt to pay the fare, Chow started pushing and shoving the elderly man, the court was told. "The bus driver just started screaming at him," the girl said. "He was grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking and pushing him. He lifted him up and chucked him off, kind of like a footy."

The man fell headfirst on to the concrete footpath, the girl said. "I saw the old man bleeding and I went to see if he was all right. I had tissues in my bag so I was just trying to clean up as much blood as I could," she said. The court was told the man sustained facial fractures and extensive bruising and cuts to his hands, hips and elbows.

Another witness on the bus recounted hearing the sound of the man hitting the concrete. "I could hear his head crack like an egg on the footpath," he said. "(The bus driver) was going to drive off but I told him I was calling the police and to stay right there."

Magistrate Jacqueline Payne committed Chow to stand trial in the District Court.

Amazing! Leftist Federal government allows an illegal immigrant to be deported

Will this be the last such episode? Judging by recent policy pronouncements, I expected that the illegal might just be given coffee and money instead

A Nigerian man who was pulled off a fence at Sydney's Villawood detention centre overnight will be deported tomorrow, just two days before he was due to marry an Australian woman. The man climbed onto the fence on Tuesday afternoon to protest against the Immigration Department's plans to send him home. He was given blankets, food and water before police were called to the centre about midnight last night.

Detainees threw rocks at police and security staff, who talked the Nigerian down while standing on a cherry picker around 2:00am (AEST).

The Fire Brigade also sent two crews to put out two small blazes that were lit inside the centre during the commotion.

Ian Rintoul, from the Refugee Action Coalition, says it is a particularly sad case because the man had planned to get married this Sunday. "A woman, Marie, knew him before he arrived in Australia apparently but has been visiting since he arrived in May last year," he said. "It was very well known that they were to be married on Sunday and yet at the moment, he's still scheduled to be removed on Friday."

Immigration Department spokesman Sandi Logan says tomorrow's deportation will put an end to a long-standing case for the man. "We understand he may have been upset; however, he's exhausted every avenue of appeal to remain in Australia," he said. "It's only right - and I think the community would expect it - that people who have no right to remain in Australia should be returned."

Will visa limits stop further illegals being allowed into Australia this year?

REFUGEE advocates are calling for an increase in humanitarian visas as a 12th refugee boat this year was intercepted in Australian waters yesterday. It was carrying 31 asylum seekers and three Indonesian crew members.

Immigration policy observers are expecting a "modest" increase to the humanitarian program beyond 750 additional spots announced in last year's budget for Iraqi nationals who assist Australian defence personnel in the Gulf war. That already-announced increase will take Australia's overall humanitarian intake to 13,750 annually.

Graham Tom, refugee advocate for Amnesty International, said as conflicts worsened in trouble spots such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Western nations would have to raise their humanitarian intake.

Earlier this year the UN Refugee Agency released figures showing an increase of 12 per cent globally across 2008 of people seeking asylum. That has correlated with a sharp increase in boat arrivals in Australia since September last year, 19 in total carrying 710 people.

Since September last year there have been 138 approvals for humanitarian visas for people in various forms of immigration detention on Christmas Island. Fourteen have been refused and four have returned voluntarily to Sri Lanka.

There are a further 459 people on Christmas Island with asylum seeker claims, with the additional 31 — believed to be adult Afghan men — now en route to the island for immigration processing. A spokesman for the Immigration Department said last night approvals of asylum seeker claims would fill all available visa spaces this financial year.

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Background

Postings from Brisbane, Australia by John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.) -- former member of the Australia-Soviet Friendship Society, former anarcho-capitalist and former member of the British Conservative party.

Most academics are lockstep Leftists so readers do sometimes doubt that I have the qualifications mentioned above. Photocopies of my academic and military certificates are however all viewable here

For overseas readers: The "ALP" is the Australian Labor Party -- Australia's major Leftist party. The "Liberal" party is Australia's major conservative political party.

In most Australian States there are two conservative political parties, the city-based Liberal party and the rural-based National party. But in Queensland those two parties are amalgamated as the LNP.

Again for overseas readers: Like the USA, Germany and India, Australia has State governments as well as the Federal government. So it may be useful to know the usual abbreviations for the Australian States: QLD (Queensland), NSW (New South Wales), WA (Western Australia), VIC (Victoria), TAS (Tasmania), SA (South Australia).

For American readers: A "pensioner" is a retired person living on Social Security

"Digger" is an honorific term for an Australian soldier

Another lesson in Australian: When an Australian calls someone a "big-noter", he is saying that the person is a chronic and rather pathetic seeker of admiration -- as in someone who often pulls out "big notes" (e.g. $100.00 bills) to pay for things, thus endeavouring to create the impression that he is rich. The term describes the mentality rather than the actual behavior with money and it aptly describes many Leftists. When they purport to show "compassion" by advocating things that cost themselves nothing (e.g. advocating more taxes on "the rich" to help "the poor"), an Australian might say that the Leftist is "big-noting himself". There is an example of the usage here. The term conveys contempt. There is a wise description of Australians generally here

Another bit of Australian: Any bad writing or messy anything was once often described as being "like a pakapoo ticket". In origin this phrase refers to a ticket written with Chinese characters - and thus inscrutably confusing to Western eyes. These tickets were part of a Chinese gambling game called "pakapoo".

Two of my ancestors were convicts so my family has been in Australia for a long time. As well as that, all four of my grandparents were born in the State where I was born and still live: Queensland. And I am even a member of the world's second-most condemned minority: WASPs (the most condemned is of course the Jews -- which may be why I tend to like Jews). So I think I am as Australian as you can get. I certainly feel that way. I like all things that are iconically Australian: meat pies, Vegemite, Henry Lawson etc. I particularly pride myself on my familiarity with the great Australian slanguage. I draw the line at Iced Vo-Vos and betting on the neddies, however. So if I cannot comment insightfully on Australian affairs, who could?

My son Joe

On all my blogs, I express my view of what is important primarily by the readings that I select for posting. I do however on occasions add personal comments in italicized form at the beginning of an article.

I am rather pleased to report that I am a lifelong conservative. Out of intellectual curiosity, I did in my youth join organizations from right across the political spectrum so I am certainly not closed-minded and am very familiar with the full spectrum of political thinking. Nonetheless, I did not have to undergo the lurch from Left to Right that so many people undergo. At age 13 I used my pocket-money to subscribe to the "Reader's Digest" -- the main conservative organ available in small town Australia of the 1950s. I have learnt much since but am pleased and amused to note that history has since confirmed most of what I thought at that early age.

I imagine that the the RD is still sending mailouts to my 1950s address!

I am an army man. Although my service in the Australian army was chiefly noted for its un-notability, I DID join voluntarily in the Vietnam era, I DID reach the rank of Sergeant, and I DID volunteer for a posting in Vietnam. So I think I may be forgiven for saying something that most army men think but which most don't say because they think it is too obvious: The profession of arms is the noblest profession of all because it is the only profession where you offer to lay down your life in performing your duties. Our men fought so that people could say and think what they like but I myself always treat military men with great respect -- respect which in my view is simply their due.

The kneejerk response of the Green/Left to people who challenge them is to say that the challenger is in the pay of "Big Oil", "Big Business", "Big Pharma", "Exxon-Mobil", "The Pioneer Fund" or some other entity that they see, in their childish way, as a boogeyman. So I think it might be useful for me to point out that I have NEVER received one cent from anybody by way of support for what I write. As a retired person, I live entirely on my own investments. I do not work for anybody and I am not beholden to anybody. And I have NO investments in oil companies or mining companies

Although I have been an atheist for all my adult life, I have no hesitation in saying that the single book which has influenced me most is the New Testament. And my Scripture blog will show that I know whereof I speak.

The Rt. Rev. Phil Case (Moderator of the Presbyterian church in Queensland) is a Pharisee, a hypocrite, an abomination and a "whited sepulchre".

English-born Australian novellist, Patrick White was a great favourite in literary circles. He even won a Nobel prize. But I and many others I have spoken to find his novels very turgid and boring. Despite my interest in history, I could only get through about a third of his historical novel Voss before I gave up. So why has he been so popular in literary circles? Easy. He was a miserable old Leftist coot, and, incidentally, a homosexual. And literary people are mostly Leftists with similar levels of anger and alienation from mainstream society. They enjoy his jaundiced outlook, his dissatisfaction, rage and anger.

Would you believe that there once was a politician whose nickname was "Honest"? "Honest" Frank Nicklin M.M. was a war hero, a banana farmer and later the conservative Premier of my home State of Queensland in the '60s. He was even popular with the bureaucracy and gave the State a remarkably tranquil 10 years during his time in office. Sad that there are so few like him.

Revered Labour Party leader Gough Whitlam was a very erudite man so he cannot have been unaware of the similarities of his famous phrase “the Party, the platform, the people” with an earlier slogan: "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuehrer". It's basically the same slogan in reverse order.

Australia's original inhabitants were a race of pygmies, some of whom survived into modern times in the mountainous regions of the Atherton tableland in far North Queensland. See also here. Below is a picture of one of them taken in 2007, when she was 105 years old and 3'7" tall

Julia Gillard, a failed feminist flop. She was given the job of Prime Minister of Australia but her feminist preaching was so unpopular that she was booted out of the job by her own Leftist party. Her signature "achievements" were the carbon tax and the mining tax, both of which were repealed by the next government.

The "White Australia Policy: "The Immigration Restriction Act was not about white supremacy, racism, or the belief that whites were higher up the evolutionary tree than the coloured races. Rather, it was designed to STOP the racist exploitation of non-whites (all of whom would have been illiterate peasants practicing religions and cultures anathema to progressive democracy) being conscripted into a life of semi-slavery in a coolie-worked plantation economy for the benefit of the absolute monarchs, hereditary aristocracy and the super-wealthy companies and share-holders of the northern hemisphere.

A great little kid

In November 2007, a four-year-old boy was found playing in a croc-infested Territory creek after sneaking off pig hunting alone with four dogs and a puppy. The toddler was found five-and-a-half hours after he set off from his parents' house playing in a creek with the puppy. Amazingly, Daniel Woditj also swam two creeks known to be inhabited by crocs during his adventurous romp. Mr Knight said that after walking for several kilometres, Daniel came to a creek and swam across it. Four of his dogs "bailed up" at the creek but the youngster continued on undaunted with his puppy to a second creek. Mr Knight said Daniel swam the second croc-infested creek and walked on for several more kilometres. "Captain is a hard bushman and Daniel is following in his footsteps. They breed them tough out bush."

A great Australian: His eminence George Pell. Pictured in devout company before his elevation to Rome

There are also two blogspot blogs which record what I think are my main recent articles here and here. Similar content can be more conveniently accessed via my subject-indexed list of short articles here or here (I rarely write long articles these days)

NOTE: The archives provided by blogspot below are rather inconvenient. They break each month up into small bits. If you want to scan whole months at a time, the backup archives will suit better. See here or here

About Me

I am a 5'10" tall, jocular former university teacher aged 70 at the time of writing in early 2014 who still has a fair bit of hair. I am Australian born of working class origins and British ancestry. My doctorate is in psychology but I taught mainly sociology (Research Methods) in my 14 years as a university teacher. In High Schools I taught economics. I have taught in both traditional and "progressive" (low discipline) High Schools. My main interests are blogging, classical music, history, the stockmarket, current affairs and languages. I have been married four times to four fine women with whom I am still on amicable terms. I have one son born in 1987. I am totally non-sporting and have never owned a firearm. My brother has enough guns for the whole family. I did however enjoy my weapons training in the Army.
Fuller biographical notes here